Brake-shoe.



No. 807,370. PATENTED 1530. 12, 1905. J. D. GALLAGHER.

BRAKE SHOE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.27,1903.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WHNESSES'. INVENTOR No. 807,370. PATENTED DEC. 12, 1905.

J. 1). GALLAGHER.

BRAKE SHOE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.27, 1903.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2,

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WITNESSES: INVENTORZ- OZMAIAM. AW- flTlsaF hmiTali ahar ATTORNEY PATBNTED DEC. 12, 1905.:

J. D. GALLAGHER.

BRAKE SHOE.

APPLIOATION FILED MAR.27, 1903.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

INVENTUR D. allagha? men EY wnwsSas:

TE 5 31:11 594m? JOSEPH D. GALLAGHER, OF GLENRIDGE, NEW J ERSEY.

BRAKE-SHOE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1905.

Application filed March 27, 1903. Serial No. 149,792.

To all whom 212? 71 my concern:

Be it known that I, J OSEPH D. GALLAGHERJL citizen of the United States, residing at Glenridge, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Brake-Shoes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to numerals of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My present invention relates especially to brake-shoes for cars; and the invention has for its object the providing of a brake-shoe which shall be reinforced against breakage in service and the reutilization of the reinforc. ing material over and over again.

Up to within a comparatively few years it has been the custom of railroads to use a brake-shoe either made of ordinary gray iron or made of acompound of gray iron and inserts of other metalsintended to lengthen the life of the shoe, but without any reinforcement against breakage, the railroads trusting to the strength of the gray iron in the body of the shoe to resist the strain placed upon the shoe when applied to the wheel in service; but as air-brakes have been introduced and the power of the air-brakes has been increased from time to time it has been found that the gray-iron shoe to a large extent and to a greater extent the composition shoes or insertshoes were liable to break before having rendered adequate service, thus causing a constantlyincreasing proportion of loss to the railroad companies. To counteract that tendency to breakage, various devices have been invented. The shoe has been strengthened against the strain of impact by wrought iron or steel rods run through the body of the shoe longitudinally, or provision has been made against the shoe falling apart when broken by the addition of a plate of ductile metal at or near the back or top of the shoe, which plate, while it did not strengthen the shoe, served to hold together the various pieces thereof in case the same was broken in service. All of thesedevices have been more or less successful; but they have all had one defect, viz: that the addition of these rods or plates largely increased the cost of production of the shoe, and thereby its initial cost to the railroads, and there has been no means yet devised for using over and over again the reinforcing bars or plates. they beingcast into the metal of the shoe in all cases, and thus the most expensive part of the shoe was necessarily thrown away or scrapped when the shoe was worn out.

It is therefore the purpose of this invention to provide a reinforcing strip or plate which shall hold the shoe together in case of fracture, as well as the steel plates heretofore used and cast into the body of the shoe, but which shall be detachable from the iron of the shoe when the shoe is worn out in service and is therefore capable of reuse.

The invention also has for its further object to cheapen the shoe by combining in one piece the reinforcing strip or plate and the key, which is customarily used to attach the brake-shoe to the brake-head when the Master (Jar-Builders standard brake-shoe is used with what is known as the Christie head.

The invention is clearly illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of a brake-shoe and head embodying the features of this invention.

Fig. 2 is a part side elevation and part longitudinal vertical section of a brake-shoe and head employing the principles of my present invention, illustrating in connection therewith my novel form of key for locking the head and shoe in place; and Fig. 3 is a top or plan view of the said parts. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section of the brake-shoe detached from the head, and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the same. Fig. 6 is a part side elevation and part vertical section of said brakeshoe with the key in place, and Fig. 7 is a perspective view of said key. Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a brake-shoe of a modified form of construction, but still embodying the principles of this invention; and Fig. 9 is a transverse vertical section of the brake-shoe and a pair of keys, also in section, to be employed in connection therewith.

Similar characters of reference are employed in all of the said herein above described views to indicate corresponding parts. Now referring to Figs. 1 to 7, inclusive, of

the drawings, in which is represented the brake-shoe embodying the principles of my present invention, I have indicated this brakeshoe by the reference character 9, and 10 indicates the central attaching-lug upon the upper curved surface of the said shoe 9. respective ends the said shoe is provided with end lugs 11, and intermediate between thesaid lugs 11 and the central attaching-lug 9 are At its IIO ' dicated by the numeral 16, said head having the slotted or bifurcated end members 19 and the holding-lugs 17, provided with the keyways 18. The said lugs 17, when the head 16 is placed upon the back of the shoe 9, are fitted in the spaces between the central attaching-lug 10 and the auxiliary lugs 12, as represented in Fig. 2 of the drawings, the keyways 18 of said lugs 17 being in circular alinement, or approximately so, with the other keyways 13, 14, and 15. At the same time the said end members 19 of the head 16 will have their lower and bifurcated or slotted ends arranged over a shoulder or projection 20, as shown. A suitably constructed and curved key 21, the key being made of such curvature that its curved surfaces will be concentric with the curved upper surface of the brake-shoe, is then readily passed through the several keyways 13 15 14 15 13 of the various lugs 11 12 17 10 17 12 11 in the manner represented more particularly in Fig. 2 of the drawings, and the end portion 22 of said key projects beyond the end lug 11 and being preferably made thinner than the remaining portion of the key is struck a blow with a hammer, and thus bent upward against the lug 11, whereby the key is locked in position and thevbrake-shoe 9 and head 16 are operatively connected. It will be seen in using this brake-shoe that the shoe is applied to the head as in the ordinary Master Car-Builders shoe, but that the key instead of passing over the top of the lug 3, as is shown in Fig. 1, is inserted in the keyway of the one end lug 11 and then driven through the alined keyways in the remaining lugs until the end 22 of the key projects from the other end lug 11 and then with a blow from a hammer being bent upward against the said lug 11 to lock the parts in their operatively-connected position against displacement by accident. The said key is usually of approximately the same width as the width of the keyways in the several lugs to prevent sidewise displacement of a portion of the shoe in case of breakage, and this form of shoe when applied may be broken across in almost any place, and still the different broken sections are held together by means of the various lugs upon the key, whereby the broken sections are prevented from falling upon the track, and the brake-shoe may continue in use until worn down completely through the body of the shoe, so that only the lugs will remain as scrap.

In the present construction of brake-shoe it will be seen from an inspection of the drawings that the body of the shoe 9 and the lugs 10, 11, and 12 are all cast in one piece; but it will be obvious that instead of the said lugs forming an integral part of the shoe strips or pieces of wrought iron or steel may be anchored in the back of the shoe having keyways of the desired size for the insertion of the key through said strip as readily as through the integral cast lugs, and this will still fur- I ther reduce the weight of the scrap when the shoe is worn out. I prefer, however, 'to use the cast-iron lugs, as they give additional strength to the shoe.

If desired, the mouths of the key ways in the various lugs may be flared, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 4, so that the key may have easy access thereto.

In the modification represented in Figs. 8 and 9 the ordinary Master Car-Builders shoe is employed, the same being indicated by the reference character 23, the same being provided in its upper portion with a dovetailed slot 24, running the whole length of the shoe. The said slot 24 extends through the central attaching-lug 25, forming with said lug an opening 26, and at the ends of the shoe it is made with a pair of end lugs 27, with the open part 28 between each pair of said end lugs. Into this dovetailed slot 24 is driven a key 29 of the corresponding cross-section, as shown in Fig. 9, and 30 indicates the usual key, by means of which the Christie or other head can be attached in the usual manner to said brakeshoe 23. The sole purpose of the key 29 is in case of a fracture of the shoe 23 to hold the broken parts together and prevent them from dropping upon the track. When the said shoe 23 is worn down and is to be discarded, a blow from the hammer upon the key 29 will remove it from the shoe, and said key can again be attached to a new shoe.

It will readily be seen that the key in use with either shoe acts as a reinforcing means and results in the strengthening of the shoe and in the saving of the entire cost of the reinforcing-key, and when the preferred form of the invention is used the shoe will cost no more to the railroads than the same weight of cast-iron, as the key which is now used to attach the shoe to the brake-head serves as a reinforcing means.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. A brake-shoe comprising a body, a central attaching-lug, an end lug at each end of said body, and an intermediately-placed lug between each end lug and said central lug, said lugs being provided with keyways, for the reception of a key and attachment of the brake-shoe body to the brake-head.

2. A brake-shoe comprising a body having curved surfaces, a central attaching-lug, an

' end lug at each end of said body, and an intral lug all on said body, holding-lugs on said brake-head, keyways in all of said lugs in alinement, and a key extending through all of said keyways for attaching said brake-shoe to said brake-head.

4. The combination, with a brake-head, of a brake-shoe comprising a body having curved surfaces, a central attaching-lug, end lugs, and an intermediately-placed lug between each end lug and said central lug, holding-lugs on said brake-head, keyways in all of said lugs in circular alinement and parallel in their longitudinal direction with the upper curved surface of said body of the brake-shoe, and a curved key extending through said keyways ior Ciattaching said brake-shoe to said brake- 5. A brake-shoe comprising a body, a central attaching-lug, an end lug at each end of said body, and an intermediately-placed lug between each end lug and said central lug, all of said lugs being provided with keyways having flaring months for easy access of a key.

In testimony that I claim the invention set forth above Ihave hereunto set my hand this 24th day of March, 1903.

JOSEPH D. GALLAGHER.

Witnesses:

PERoY L. GALLAGHER, WARREN L. JAooBUs. 

